Mystery Melange

Congratulations to Laura Lippman, the winner of the first Pinckley Prize for a Distinguished Body of Work. Gwen Florio also won the Pinckley Prize for a Debut Novel for her first book, Montana, published by Permanent Press. The Pinckley Prizes were established to honor the memory of Diana Pinckley, longtime crime fiction columnist for The New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Thanks to Janet Rudolph at Mystery Fanfare for noting the 2014 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year shortlist. The finalists include Closed for Winter by Jørn Lier Horst; Stange Shores by Arnaldur Indriðason; The Weeping Girl by Håkan Nesser; Linda, as in the Linda Murder by Leif G W Persson; Someone to Watch Over Me by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir; and Light in a Dark House by Jan Costin Wagner.

The Lambda Literary Awards, honoring lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) books published in 2013 have announced their finalists, including those in the mystery categories.  (Hat tip to the Rap Sheet).

Dave Zeltserman posted the Readers Choice Awards from all 2013 Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine stories, which happens to include his own "Archie Solves the Case" taking the top spot. Congrats to Dave and all the other Top Ten stories of the year. The list will also appear in the May 2014 issue of EQMM, available in bookstores.

Crime fiction blogger Ayo Onatade noted she's one of the participants for the upcoming Queens of Crime Conference in June accepted at The Institute of English Studies, University of London. Her topic is "Contemporary Contenders for the Title Queen of Crime – Who would you pick and why?" The Keynote speakers for the conference are Val McDermid and Dr Lee Horsley, and there will be many more papers and speakers announced in the coming months.

The new Dark & Stormy crime fiction festival in UK's Brighton is gearing up ahead of its May 23-25 launch. The event will include authors, screenwriters, actors, directors and musicians in a variety of discussions, interviews, movie screenings and performances. (Hat tip to Shots Magazine.)

The new issue of Mystery Scene magazine includes a review of Laura Lippman's latest by Kevin Burton Smith; Oline Cogdill chats with author Chris Pavone; Joseph Goodrich considers Sally Cline's new biography of Dashiell Hammett and fictional portraits of the writer in two recent novels; Mystery Scene critics present their "Fave Raves of 2013," and much more.

The March issue of Suspense Magazine includes Jeffery Deaver, Allison Brennan, C.J. Box, Steven Saylor, Allan Leverone, Steven L. Shrewsbury, and B.J. Daniels being interviewed, with insights into their books. There's a new section with the International Thriller Writers (ITW) Reader's Corner where you'll get inside scoop on what ITW members are recommending. Anthony J. Franze (a/k/a Lisa Gardner) and M.J. Rose also "FaceOff on the Rules of Fiction."

The Top Suspense Group announced it was shutting down, three years after it was formed. The experiment was a coalition of eleven authors who sold their books and anthologies together via a web site an on various eBook platforms, as well as sponsoring a blog. Fans of the authors should not despair, because they will continue to write and publish via other platforms.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Take a Bite Out of Crime" by Catherine Wald; this week's featured story at the Beat to a Pulp webzine is "Final Encore" by Bracken MacLeod.

The Q&A roundup this week includes Hank Phillippi Ryan interviews fellow author Julia Spencer Fleming; and Cara Black chats with The Mystery People.